I have no affinity for horses, not since the Gruesome Horse Incident of ‘68. Four friends of mine suggested we go ride horses at one of those pay-and-follow-a-trail-for-an-hour places. So they each got a nice, small, friendly horse. Think Snoopy or a Care Bear. The owner, Cruella de Vil’s husband I am sure, dragged a foaming monster of a horse out of the barn, think the Apocalypse, and set me upon it, high above the clouds. He gave this instruction, “When he tries to bite you, kick him and he will eventually quit.” Lovely. Off we go until my horse said, “Nope, not going on this trip,” and trotted back to the barn, whereupon Mr de Vil grabbed the rein, pulled Thunder down the trail and picked up a small board that had fallen off a fence and swatted his behind. Off we took running with me bouncing up when I should have been going down and vise versa until we reached the deep woods. My friends were gently bobbing along atop their mounts while Pestilence reluctantly joined the end of the line. Again, after two minutes of grudgingly walking along, Tornado turns into the woods and runs for home, trying to knock me off by hitting his side into trees. I hung on but lost my glasses, tore my jacket and when we got back - into the stall - no stopping at the edge this time, I jumped off before any more death defying rides. Not been on a horse since.

So imagine my surprise as Jill and I went to the Keeneland Race Track near Lexington, Kentucky and survived. It was quite nice and a great morning. The grounds were beautiful and you could roam wherever you liked, along the track, grandstands, paddocks, barns, and we even ate breakfast where the jockeys and staff gather at the Track Restaurant. Photo opps everywhere. The horses are worked out in the morning from about seven to ten. And you can go watch. For Free! There were a host of people mowing, painting, cleaning and preparing for the fall races in October and a huge horse auction in September. Lots more on the morning this week.

Thanks for choosing to spend a bit of time with Two Lane Touring. We have been on a 2-week break after 11 years but we are back to regular posts with some new twists that you can read about on the TLT Story.